In most of the developed world, population is *juuust* barely stable, or else about to start rapidly falling because of years of low birth rates.

Governments in these areas (S. Korea, US, Japan, Canada, Europe) really do not want to population to fall, as that will create tax and labor shortages, making it difficult to pay Social Security and similar entitlements, and difficult to maintain basic infrastructure and provide basic health care. The latter is especially important in light of the fact that the average age of the population is increasing.

In addition, with the recent economic collapse, governments of many places (France and Britain for example) are actually quite afraid of the potential for unhappy, stressed-out people to start rioting. The stress and fear of an epidemic, combined with the human desire to find someone to blame, threatens to increase the potential for destabilization even more.

So it is extremely unlikely for the government to want an illness like this. In addition there are known risks associated with factory farming that make it quite likely to be the source of swine flu. Animals do not naturally congregate in the densities found in factory farming. These densities tend to increase the chances for disease to spread and mutate.

In addition, the virus has killed only a handful of people, all of whom were in Mexico. It appears, so far, to be treatable in most cases, especially here where we in general have better nutrition and better air quality. So it would be extremely stupid to release an illness to kill people if it is only capable of killing a few hundred people out of thousands that have contracted it. You could better argue that automobiles were invented to kill people!

So what your friend is saying is *almost* totally ridiculous.

However, not quite. There is a history however of concern over population that reaches far back and has at times had a very serious impact in government policy. This is such a serious historical issue that we need to keep it in mind; Never Forget.. In some other cases or in the future, to think a government may be pursuing a policy for eugenic or population control purposes might be realistic. So even though your friend is wrong and this case is not related, the idea that this could or did happen at some point isn’t always ridiculous.

Malthus for example worried that population increases of his time (due to better hygiene, health care and economic factors) would lead to mass starvation, and to the elites (who had traditionally kept their numbers down in order to keep money centered in a small number of families) being swamped by poor people. The poor people in this case were in large part from Celtic ethnic groups. Similarly people like Margaret Sanger and other eugenicists favored using force, such as forced sterilizations, to keep "undesirables" from surfacing in the population. The US in fact historically forced a number of people, especially Native Americans, to be sterilized against their will:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_sterilization#United_States

Combining this fact with the fact that in history there are things like governments doing experiments on people with serious illnesses even at the risk of their lives (see: http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/Story.asp?s=1207586 ), and you can see that the basic idea isn’t so ridiculous. Governments don’t always treat their citizens well, and citizens do need to be eternally vigilant to check government abuses.

Still, your friend is being really silly and paranoid about the swine flu, for all of the reasons I gave in the first part of this answer. Crying wolf like that will just make concerned people look stupid the next time there is actually something real to be worried about.

These are just some examples. You can read more about government-engineered mass deaths and about the connection between eugenics and certain overblown population fears here:

http://web.mit.edu/racescience/links/index.html

Could I get the swine flu if someone with the influenza pumps gas before I do? How long will the pump stay infectious?

The swine flu, like so many other viruses, can go dormant but remain hazardous for years. If it has gone dormant, it usually isn’t all that dangerous. But here’s a chance for a health professional to do what we do best: preach hand washing.
That’s right: after all these years of experience and all these years of careful laboratory research, we recognize that the best preventive of all is -still- simple and frequent hand washing with warm water and soap. So get out ya bar of Dial, dude!
P.S. Antibacterial soap is not necessary – cheaper soap and warm water are just as effective. As for the gas pump handle – usually not a problem, but carry some of those antibacterial hand-wipes in your briefcase or purse and use one after ya fill your tank.

Anyway, why were people so concerned about it? Why did people say it would kill millions of people?

People seem to always imagine that whatever happens was inevitable, and the experts "should have seen it coming". News media likes to report "breaking news", which means they report things before people know the real facts. And, as has been mentioned, fear sells newspapers.

Where predicting pandemics is concerned, we are where weathermen were when they first put up weather satellites. We can see a storm forming over the gulf, but we can’t tell if it will be a Katrina or just fizzle.

There were a number of hints this MIGHT be a disaster. Flus that have crossed over into humans from animals recently are often much worse. Flu viruses that don’t have surface proteins in common with an older flu are unfamiliar and hard for our immune systems to recognize. Early reports said (incorrectly) that The H1N1 "swine flu" had no surface proteins in common with older flu viruses. The H1N1 "swine flu" had some features in common with the devastating 1918 flu. It had some biological similarities, and like that flu it was more serious for young people then older people. (a rare trait in a flu). Early in the epidemic a bunch of students died in a Mexican High School.
The flu also appeared too late in the season to incorporate the vaccine for it into the normal flu shot.

It turns out that the flu DID have some things in common with a flu that went around decades ago, so old people (normally the group most vulnerable to the flu) had some added protection. Nothing like the incident in the Mexican High School occurred elsewhere, no one knows why.

It began in march 2011. And this is not on chronological time so i dont know when it all happened since i did not know about these things. She does not smoke/drink etc, She does not pass out or did not have an instant weightloss.

Im gonna bring her to the doctor this week. But im really curious and worry about her alot. So my question is: Is one year too late to cure colon cancer?

Im sorry for writing so much but i really love her and dont want to lose her.

You’re 14! How are you going to take her to a doctor when you can’t even drive?
How old is this woman? It is the most basic information needed when asking a medical question.
If she has been screened as recommended she doesn’t have to worry about it.

I had a basal cell carcinoma removed and the cancer has not recurred, so I consider myself "cured". Likewise my husband had a mole removed that was melanoma and they caught it early enough and nothing has grown back or spread.

Most skin cancers are simply surgically removed in the early stages and if they’re thorough, that particular lesion won’t grow back. Both my husband and I are at increased risk of skin cancer and expect to have more moles removed but I consider each instance "cured" when its removed.